


Blind

by Setcheti



Category: MacGyver (TV), The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Magnificent Seven AU: ATF, Physical Disability, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-01
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-04-09 12:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4348591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setcheti/pseuds/Setcheti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Josiah had known for a while that his eyes were getting worse. He just hadn't realized announcing it would cause the problems within his team to come to a head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blind

Josiah had actually known for a while that his eyes were getting worse, so his optometrist’s latest diagnosis wasn’t as much of a shock as it might have been. It was still a shock, though.

He was going blind. Within the next six months, he would _be_ blind.

 

He gave himself a day to come to terms with the situation, and then he told them. His friends reacted with varying degrees of shock, sorrow and anger but they each took turns reassuring the older man that he would always be one of them even though he wouldn’t actually be on the team anymore…all except for two.

While the others were commiserating and telling the profiler how much they were going to miss him, Ezra corralled JD and dragged him back to his desk. “Pull up the Americans with Disabilities Act and Mr. Sanchez’ employment records,” he told the younger agent in a low voice. “I could see by the look on your face that like myself you don’t believe a person’s usefulness is at an end simply because they lose their sight – although it is obvious that our associates can only see tragedy and a tin cup full of pencils in Mr. Sanchez’ future.”

“I noticed.” JD sounded disgusted. “Know just what part of the Act you want, too; I went through training with a guy who lost his leg in an accident, the law says they have to make reasonable concessions.”

“Yes, they do – and we must get that information to Judge Travis before the others carry their little Greek tragedy up to him. If Mr. Larabee reaches him first Josiah will be retired before the elevator can get back down to our floor. The man is a profiler, I am positive that his job description does not require field work.”

“Nope, he’s just been doin’ it,” JD agreed.   “But technically he’s supposed to stay in the van with me during a bust to monitor the wires and pass advice along to you when he can.”

“And after we remind the judge of that we can inform Mr. Larabee as well – at gunpoint if necessary,” Ezra said. “Now let’s be quick, we have next to no time to accomplish this _coup de at_ if it is to be successful.”

 

The two agents were still explaining their position to Judge Travis when their team leader came storming in. “Agent Larabee, there is such a thing as knocking,” the judge told him with mild exasperation. “I am assuming you’re here to tell me about Agent Sanchez' pending disability?”

“Among other things,” Larabee ground out. He glared at Ezra and JD. “What I want to know first is what the two of you are doing here and why you felt the need to go behind my back to the judge.”

“I felt we needed to make a few things clear to Judge Travis before you came up here to take away Mr. Sanchez' livelihood,” was the cool reply from the undercover agent – who had stepped forward just enough to put himself marginally between Larabee and JD. “The law is very clear regarding the treatment of individuals with disabilities, but I knew that the judge may not have had prior experience with such a situation and felt it necessary to see that he had all pertinent information at his disposal.”

Chris snorted. “And you dragged JD along with you why? To hide behind?” He made a dismissive gesture. “It doesn’t matter, I’ll deal with you later. Right now the judge and I need to talk about finding another profiler for Team Seven…”

“That may not be necessary,” Travis said slowly.   “According to the research your men here did, it is possible that Agent Sanchez could continue on with his job even after his sight is gone.”

“No, he can’t.” Chris gave Ezra a scathing look. “I don’t know what these two told you, but Sanchez will be completely blind within the next six months so no, obviously he can’t continue to do his job. I don’t want to see him go either, but if he can’t see he can’t do the job he’s been doing and that’s just the way things are…”

“No, Mr. Larabee, that is not the way things are,” Ezra contradicted firmly. “That is just the way you have been running things. According to his job description as per his employment contract with the federal government, Mr. Sanchez is not required to be an active participant in the field save by monitoring what comes over the wires.”

Chris didn’t budge. “He won’t be able to watch the surveillance tapes.”

Ezra snorted. “He doesn’t now – I do. We came to the conclusion early on that I was more efficient at that task than he was and I have ‘assisted’ him with it ever since. And before you say it,” he silenced Larabee’s objection with an upraised hand, “we have never made a secret of our arrangement and you know it, you simply ignored it because it wasn’t an issue.   Just as you ignore the fact that Mr. Tanner is not capable of writing his own reports; again, so long as the job gets done and no one complains it is not an issue. This new situation will simply involve a slight extension of the same tolerance.”

“It involves more than that, I like all my men in the field…”

“Yes, we know you do,” JD snapped, surprising him. “And how many times has that gotten Ez into trouble because Josiah wasn’t where he was supposed to be to help monitor the situation?”

Chris turned red. “Buck…”

“Is not a profiler, nor does he possess more than a rudimentary popular knowledge of psychology,” Ezra interjected hotly. “You and I both know why Mr. Wilmington is normally placed on duty with JD and we will not go into the ugly details here; suffice it to say that you trust him and your suspicions are of more importance than my safety.”

Travis came halfway up out of his seat. “What?!”

Ezra snorted again, but more respectfully this time. “Please, Judge Travis, you hold me in very low regard as well; do not attempt to take the moral high ground to our team leader.   But none of this is the issue; what we are arguing here are Mr. Sanchez’ rights under the law with regard to the situation, and the law says that what Mr. Larabee is trying to do is discrimination, plain and simple. And the federal government does not condone such actions, nor will it support them if a case is brought.”

Travis allowed himself to be redirected; he’d seen an expression of compounded shock and guilt flicker across Larabee’s face and he knew that he’d momentarily worn the same expression after the undercover agent’s offhand accusation. But the man had a point, they needed to get back to the matter at hand. “He’s right, Chris. The law is clear.”

“A blind man doesn’t have any place in law enforcement!” Larabee almost yelled. “You name me one person…”

“Pete Thornton, director of the Phoenix Foundation,” JD said in a flat voice. “He went blind on the job, kind of like Josiah is, and they made allowances for him – and his job _did_ include field work. He’s still there, too. Face it, Chris, it wouldn’t be any problem to keep Josiah on the team and we wouldn’t have to make that many changes to accommodate him not being able to see, you just don’t want to.”

Larabee’s jaw set. “I don’t _have_ to. I won’t have anyone on my team who can’t pull his own weight, and I insist that all my men be ready for the field on every case. If he wants to go along with this bullshit he can, but if he wants to stay with the ATF he’ll have to transfer to another team, end of story.”

Ezra shared a look with JD, then nodded to the other two men. “In that case, I believe there is nothing more to be said. Judge, if you’ll excuse us, I believe there are more productive things that Agent Dunne and myself could be doing than arguing with a blind man.”

“Thank you for coming, gentlemen,” Travis answered, waving them toward the door. As soon as the two agents were gone he cocked an eyebrow at Chris. “Well, this has been a much more interesting day than I was anticipating, I’ll give it that. And now I believe we need to discuss your position on this with regards to the law, Agent Larabee. You have a right to your opinion, of course, but your way of expressing it could get the department sued…”

 

Ezra and JD had disappeared for a short time and then they had both blown back into the office before Chris had time to return from upstairs and had immediately asked Josiah if they could take him to lunch; they had at the same time not-so-subtly let their other teammates know that the invitation wasn’t open to anyone else. They went to Inez’ place, to their usual table, and once the waitress had been dealt with Ezra got right to the point. “Mr. Sanchez, JD and I have gotten an idea for a possible business venture and we had wondered if you might be interested in joining us.”

Josiah raised an eyebrow; it hadn’t escaped his notice that both JD and Ezra had slipped away after he’d made his announcement to the team, but he knew both men well enough to know that whatever they were about to offer him would be a serious opportunity and not one concocted out of pity.   As a matter of fact, it rather looked to him like both of the younger men were holding back a good deal of anger at the moment although it didn’t seem to be directed at him. “You two are starting a business together?”

“We’re discussing it,” JD answered. “I’ve been feeling…well, underutilized here,” he explained.   “Actually, a lot of my skills are going to waste in this job and even though I like what I do I’m starting to get tired of that.”

“And I am getting old for undercover work,” Ezra added. “I can’t bounce back like I used to anymore, and in my line of work that is a pending death sentence. There is, however, a need for experts such as ourselves in the private sector, and we had wondered if you would like to put your talent for profiling and psychological evaluation to work in a slightly different venue?”

“You’re talking about doing security investigations,” Josiah concluded, nodding. “It sounds like a good idea, boys, but in six months I’ll…”

“You’ll have had just about enough time to get used to the special software on your computer,” JD interrupted. “We should have time before your eyes get too bad for you to make sure it all works the way you want it to, work out all the bugs.”

“What you do so well is in no way dependent on your sense of sight, whether our stubborn leader will admit it or not,” Ezra said with conviction.   Impulsively, he put a hand on the older man’s arm and squeezed. “Josiah, you are a man who loves what he does, you should not allow the prejudices of others to take that away from you.”

“What are you up to, Ez?” demanded Buck’s voice from behind them, making both Ezra and JD jump. The ladies’ man had a disgusted frown on his face; he’d followed the three men down to the bar, wanting to know what was going on. “I don’t see how even you could try to pull the man away from retirement just to help you out in whatever scheme you’re up to, and usin’ what’s happenin’ to him to do it is the lowest damn thing I’ve ever heard of. And I bet you tricked the kid here into goin’ along with it by playin’ on his ego, too, there just ain’t no excuse for you.”

“We are offering Mr. Sanchez an _option_ ,” Ezra corrected.   “Something you and our other teammates do seem to think that he has, professionally speaking. He abandoned retirement due to boredom two years ago, we wanted to make sure he knew he did not have to return to that life simply because of a quirk of fate and a stubborn boss.”

“And no one tricked me into anything, Buck,” JD asserted coldly.   “The fact that I know a hell of a lot more than you all give me credit for isn’t ego, it’s just the truth.”

Buck looked taken aback, and Josiah had to smile. “I have to admit, I wasn’t lookin’ forward to being retired again,” he admitted, further shocking the ladies’ man.   “I’d like to know a bit more about this option of yours, though. How flexible will my hours be?”

Ezra’s green eyes twinkled. “If you wish things to be arranged so that you can do some of the work from the comfort of your own home, that would certainly be acceptable,” he said.   “But I feel we would have to insist on a certain amount of time spent in the office as well.”

JD winked at him, ignoring Buck. “Yeah, Josiah, we can’t just have you hangin’ around the house in your hippie clothes and only showing up at work when you want to. But I could really easily set you up a network connection at home so you could split your time between the two.”

“I’ll have you know that most of my ‘hippie clothes’, as you called them, are older than _you_ ,” Josiah chuckled.   He was starting to feel better already; his two young friends were serious about this, and they were letting him know that although they were prepared to be accommodating they weren’t going to coddle him or treat him any differently than they had in the past.   “I like the idea of a split schedule, though, sort of the best of both worlds. I’m guessing the three of us will be taking a pay cut until the business gets off the ground?”

“Unfortunately correct,” Ezra agreed. “But on the upside all three of us should be able to retain our current insurance coverage indefinitely, and once the business is established I believe we can add supplemental insurance through the company that will eliminate deductibles altogether. Your special equipment, of course, will be tax deductible for the company and some we may even be able to claim reimbursement for through one or more of the government agencies which make individuals with disabilities their concern.   We will definitely not have to cut any corners where that is concerned.”

“Sounds like it won’t put a hardship on the business, either, that’s good to know.” Josiah looked up at Buck, who was still standing there with a singular expression of shock on his face. “Problem, brother?”

Buck closed his mouth, which had been hanging open, and dropped into the chair that JD kicked out for him. “I…I just don’t know what to say. I thought…”

“You thought that if I couldn’t see my life and my career as it had been was over,” Josiah finished for him gravely. “I’d been feelin’ that way myself, but thanks to our younger brothers here I can now see some light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. He winked at JD again and was pleased to see the younger man break up into quiet giggles.   “I do have one final question for these two, though, and it isn’t ‘when do I start’ – I’m assuming that will be right at the end of my two weeks notice, which I’m prepared to put in today.   No, what I want to know is if the two of you are certain that you want to give up your careers with the ATF and strike out on your own.”

Two pairs of eyes, one green and one brown, met his and not a flicker of doubt was to be seen in them. “Yes,” two voices said at once.

“I believe neither of us actually has a ‘career’ with the ATF, only a job,” Ezra clarified quietly. “A most rewardin’ and entertainin’ job, but not one in which either of us could remain indefinitely. And as we will be remaining in Denver, neither you nor JD will be required to give up your other friends on Team Seven.”

“Your friends too, son,” Josiah corrected softly.

Ezra shook his head. “No, that would be overstating the mutuality of my relationship with the others considerably; bein’ a friend is not the same as havin’ one, I’m afraid.” He changed the subject before anything more could be said about it. “So we are agreed, the three of us are handing in our resignations today preparatory to striking out on our own?”

Buck winced as the three glasses clinked together, hearing the breaking of the fellowship the seven men had built, and after a few awkward moments he excused himself and left the bar to head back to the office. Two weeks …he would talk to the others, a lot could happen in two weeks.

 

It turned out that a lot could happen in two hours, too. When they got back to the office and JD, Josiah and Ezra went to Chris to hand in their resignations, Larabee startled everyone by firing Ezra on the spot – everyone but Ezra, that is. The undercover agent appeared resigned, almost as though he’d been expecting it; he simply nodded, dropped his letter of resignation on the floor at Larabee’s feet and walked out of the room without a word. JD immediately turned on Buck. “You…you…” At an apparent loss for words scathing enough to express what he thought of the older man, he drew himself up stiffly and glared. “I’ll have my stuff out of the apartment tonight – and out of my desk here in the next ten minutes, you can shove that two weeks’ notice up your ass, Chris.”

Larabee angrily stepped forward to stop JD leaving the room but found his way blocked by Josiah. “This isn’t about them, Chris,” the profiler said in a flat, angry voice. “It isn’t even about me losing my sight, is it?   It’s all about you and your obsessive need to be in control.”

“I’m the boss,” Chris snarled. “Something some of you seem to have forgotten. I won’t keep a man on my team who betrays me, Standish is lucky _all_ I did was fire him.”

“He didn’t betray you,” Vin said suddenly, surprising everyone. “He stuck up for Josiah because you were being a stubborn ass, and you firin’ him while he was givin’ you notice was just your way of punishin’ him for callin’ you on it. It was petty and mean…and I damn well quit too.”

Chris’ eyes widened in shock. “Vin…”

“You’re playin’ favorites and I won’t be part of it.” Vin’s blue eyes hardened. “I tell you off when you’re wrong too, but you ain’t never fired me for it.   And dyslexia as bad as mine is considered a disability, but you’ve never said I needed to find another line of work.”

“It’s not the same thing,” Buck began.

“It’s one hell of a liability in the field because in a pinch I might not be able to read somethin’ right and that could get someone killed – we wear jackets with letters on ‘em, remember?” Vin shot back. “Now I’m goin’ to go pack up my shit and apologize to Ez for not backin’ him up earlier, maybe see if this company he and the kid are startin’s got a use for an ex-bounty hunter.”

“I’m certain it does,” Josiah said firmly. He bent over and retrieved Ezra’s letter of resignation from the floor, then plucked his and JD’s from the shocked team leader’s hand.   “You want to play things this way, I think we’ll all be happy to accommodate you, Chris.   I appreciate what Ezra and JD did for me, and it wasn’t just offering me a job; they reminded me that losing my sight isn’t the end of things for me, it just means some things will have to change. And I would have understood if you didn’t want to deal with those changes as far as work goes, that’s your call to make and I respect the fact that it’s a tough one.   What pissed me off is that this team was more than just seven men working together, we were a family and you’ve almost always handled things with that in mind…until today, when everyone needed it most.”

There simply wasn’t much anyone could say after that.

 

Travis stepped out of the elevator to see four of his best agents standing there holding their belongings while Larabee scowled at them from his office door. “Well, that explains that, then,” he muttered under his breath. Aloud he said, “Just what is going on here?”

“A mass exodus brought about by a show of solidarity, Judge,” Josiah answered gravely. Ezra flinched and the big man patted his shoulder. “Son, it isn’t your fault.”

“The hell it isn’t,” Nathan muttered. He was torn, wanting to back up Josiah and his other friends but yet not trusting the Southerner’s motives. “Don’t make excuses for him, Josiah, he’s the one that stirred everyone up…”

“No, that was me – I made an announcement this morning, remember?” the profiler corrected his friend gently. Nathan had the good grace to look abashed. “It’s all right, Brother, emotions are running high right now. And I may have lit the fuse in this situation, but it was Chris who blew it all to hell.”

“He had help,” JD said disgustedly. “Things might not have worked out this way if Buck hadn’t followed the three of us to lunch and then run back here to ‘report’ to Chris.”

Now it was Buck’s turn to flinch. “It wasn’t like that! I was hopin’ that if everyone knew what was goin’ on maybe we could do something about it. I sure as hell didn’t expect Chris to fire Ezra the minute he walked in the door…”

“Of course not, but you were more than certain an hour earlier that I was blatantly using both JD and Josiah to further my own ends,” Ezra shot back scathingly. “I knew you were there to spy on _me_ from the moment you stepped into the Saloon, Mr. Wilmington, but your doing such a thing to your friends was inexcusable.”

“What _about_ you though, Ezra?” Nathan wanted to know; he was positive there was a catch somewhere, he just couldn’t see it. “You had to have known Chris would fire you for this, for goin’ against him and all. What would you have done if he’d seen reason and let Josiah stay on?”

“I would have applauded his decision,” was the even answer.

Josiah’s eyes narrowed; he had no doubt Ezra was telling the truth, but along with Nathan he realized that there was something…suddenly it hit him, and he gasped. “You expected him to do just that, didn’t you? Expend all his anger on you, then calm down and change his mind about me?  You didn’t think it would go this far.”

“No, I did not,” Ezra admitted with a barely audible sigh. He cast a quick, worried look up at the older man.   “Not that the offer of alternative employment was a ruse, Mr. Sanchez, it was and still is genuine. I had simply hoped it would not be necessary for you to take me up on it.”

Josiah nodded, but he wasn’t finished. “What about you, then?” The undercover agent cocked a puzzled eyebrow, but the profiler didn’t buy it. “What about you, what if Chris had reacted the way you thought he would? What would you have done?”

Ezra shrugged. “I honestly hadn’t thought much about it; that was unimportant. I knew that if Mr. Larabee could be made to accommodate you he would then be persuaded by you and Mr. Wilmington to do something for JD as well, and that would have been the ideal outcome for all concerned. I apparently miscalculated Mr. Wilmington’s ability to influence him and I failed to predict Mr. Tanner’s disaffection with the situation and so my plans went rather awry…and for that I apologize.”

Travis decided it was time for him to reenter the conversation.   “If you are apologizing for failing to be God, Agent Standish,” he said dryly, “I’m afraid I’ll have to inform you that you never were him to begin with. And for the record, you did your best to help and I find no fault with your actions today given the circumstances.” His upraised hand stopped Larabee’s objection. “Agent Larabee, I have been making exceptions for this team ever since its creation, I am not going to stop now just because you sat on a stick this morning. That, however, is not the reason I came down here. Agent Dunne, did you by chance sometime this morning contact a ‘friend’ at the Phoenix Foundation?”

JD blushed. “Uh, yeah – Mac’s boss went blind just like Josiah is, I wanted to ask him some questions. And he called me back about half an hour ago to see how things were going.”

“And I’m guessing you told him,” the judge said. He smiled slightly at the young man’s look of discomfiture. “You didn’t do anything wrong either, Agent Dunne; there is no regulation in this bureau that says you can’t tell a friend you’ve quit your job – or that several of your associates quit with you. You might be surprised to know, however, that the director of said Foundation just contacted me with some questions about the four of you. Apparently he’s decided that my loss might be his gain.” He shot Chris a dirty look. “Imagine how surprised I was to discover I was about to lose four members of my best team. When were you planning to tell me, Larabee, at the office Christmas party?”

Chris looked back at him with a disrespectfully exasperated expression.   “This all happened kind of fast, Judge.”

“Obviously – but you and I just as obviously need to have another talk about where the chain of command does and doesn’t stop.” Travis sighed and shook his head. “As Agent Sanchez mentioned, emotions are running high right now, and so far as I can see this isn’t just one problem but a whole bucketful.   You feel betrayed by Standish because he went over your head to me and then came up with his own solution to the problem when you wouldn’t listen to him, Wilmington is unsure of you right now because you’re overreacting and won’t listen to him either – not to mention you put him in a position where it looks like he betrayed his friends. Jackson isn’t sure what to think because he hasn’t been paying attention to any of you, and Standish believes that all of us distrust him and that what happens to him personally doesn’t matter. Is that about it in a nutshell?”

Chris shot a surprised look at Buck. “You think I’m using you against the others?” The other man’s lack of response was answer enough, and Larabee made a face. “Shit, Buck, I wasn’t trying to do that; I just knew I could trust you…”

“You should have trusted _all_ of us,” Vin interjected gratingly, with a pointed look at Ezra, who was looking everywhere but at someone. “But you’ve been playin’ favorites all this time, and not just with me.”

“Now Vin, that ain’t fair,” Nathan began. The judge’s accusation that he hadn’t been paying attention to his teammates had stung – especially since he knew that sometimes it was true.   “Chris has got a tough job, trying to balance out this team so that it works all the way around, but I know he always tries to do the right thing, to be as fair about things as he can…”

“Oh, shut the hell up, Nathan,” JD snapped tiredly. He looked disgusted. “You’re even worse than Chris is; at least he’s seen everyone’s record and knows something about all of us, you just pigeonholed everyone the first time we met. And if you don’t believe me, think about all the wrong conclusions you’re jumping to all the time and then tell me what you’ve been basing them on.”

The ex-paramedic couldn’t find an answer for that. “JD,” Ezra said quietly. “Mr. Jackson is only trying to defuse the situation…”

“Yeah, by pinnin’ everything on you,” Vin snorted. Ezra looked away again. “But one way or the other we all had a hand in this mess, and we ain’t gonna fix it standin’ around here peckin’ at each other.”

“I agree,” Travis said firmly. Then he sighed and shook his head. “I must admit, I’d hoped to come down here and find the seven of you wrangling your way toward some sort of solution…”

“We still could, Judge!” Buck interjected hopefully. “Everyone keeps sayin’ it, ‘emotions are runnin’ high right now’. Maybe if everyone takes a little break, once we’ve all had some time…”

“No.” Everyone froze; there was no room for compromise or argument in that hard little word, just the icy chill of implacability. “No, not this time.” Travis shook his head. “You’ve worked through problems in the past, but that’s because you were all _trying_ to work through them and everyone gave a little to get there. Now Larabee is refusing to give at all, Standish is trying to sacrifice himself and the rest of you have pretty much split right down the middle – I think I probably came down here just in time to stop things getting even uglier than they already are.” He sighed heavily. “This is not the kind of rift a law enforcement team can recover from, gentlemen, except on television. And seeing as how this unfortunately is real life I will not risk any of your lives in a foolish attempt to prove otherwise. You four gentlemen may consider your resignations accepted as of this moment and the penalties for not giving notice to be waived due to the circumstances. Mr. Sanchez, I can’t express how sorry I am about what is happening to you, but you have my utmost admiration for the way you’re facing it.”

“I had a little help with that,” Josiah rumbled, casting an affectionate glance at Ezra and JD. “I may be losing something, but I think I’ve gained something today that’s even more precious.”

“I think so too,” the judge agreed warmly. “If there is ever anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to call me – and that goes for all four of you. It’s been a pleasure to work with you all.” He shook hands with each man and herded them into the elevator at the same time; Standish was last, and Travis murmured something in the undercover agent’s ear that made the green eyes widen in shocked disbelief. The judge patted his shoulder in a fatherly way and then gently pushed him toward his waiting friends.

Once the elevator doors closed, Travis turned around and faced his remaining three agents.   “Agent Larabee, I will meet with you and Agents Wilmington and Jackson first thing tomorrow morning so that we can discuss where to go from here.”

Chris looked at him…and then turned on his heel and disappeared back into his office, shutting the door hard but not quite slamming it. Buck looked from the elevator to the closed door and back, then turned his eyes on the judge. “So…that’s it? It’s just…over?”

“I’m afraid so,” Travis told him. He wasn’t unsympathetic to the three remaining agents, but he was disappointed in them. “However, I’m sure that after a little cooling-off time most of you could probably remain friends.”

“Yeah, most of us.” Nathan, too, shot a look at Larabee’s closed door.   “Judge Travis, if I could ask, what did you say to Ezra that startled him like that? Man looked like you’d slapped him.”

“No, just opened his eyes. He said earlier in my office that I held him in very low regard, I just took this opportunity to correct him” The judge chuckled at their obvious confusion, but there was little humor in the sound. “There are different kinds of blind, gentlemen, and not just the sort that Mr. Sanchez has in his future. Chris Larabee’s variety comes and goes, and even though blackness may obscure his vision from time to time it will eventually crack and allow through some light; it just didn’t crack fast enough this time. But Mr. Standish…he can’t see because he believes the darkness is all there is. I have to admit, I’d rather be afflicted with Sanchez’ kind than his any day.”

Deciding he’d given the elevator enough time, Travis stepped forward and pushed the button. “I’d advise the two of you to keep an eye on Larabee tonight,” he called back over his shoulder. “He needs to learn from the mistake he made today, not drown it or run away from it.”   Before the doors slid closed he saw both men nod seriously and was satisfied; he really didn’t want Chris left alone tonight, he was afraid of what might happen.

Should he have told them? The judge wasn’t sure. He wanted to make sure the reality of what had happened sank in with all three of them, and he’d decided that telling them Thornton had asked about the possibility of keeping the whole team together was only going to reinforce the unrealistic view some of them seemed to have regarding the consequences of their actions. Chris especially needed to learn that a leader can’t afford to take his temper out on his men – the reaction he’d had to Standish accusing him of deliberately endangering the undercover agent’s life had been encouraging to Travis, but then Larabee had apparently turned right around and gone after Standish again at the first opportunity so maybe more drastic measures were needed to drive the point home. And letting a large part of Larabee’s team walk away from him was certainly drastic.

The judge just hoped it didn’t prove to be too drastic. He’d been blind himself, he knew; he’d gotten caught up in the fantasy, let himself be entertained by Team Seven’s antics and puffed himself up with pride over their successes…but he’d forgotten that they were real people and not two-dimensional heroes from some old dime novel and so he hadn’t been in a position to help them solve the problem before it went too far. But, he’d done what he could. He just hoped Pete Thornton wouldn’t make the same mistake he had.


End file.
